To speak to nursery about this?

[RhubarbAndMustard]

Advice needed from oh wise MNetter's.

My 2.8yr DS is mixed race and goes to nursery. Recently when I pick him up, he's been saying comments like 'I'm not light, I'm dark' and ' (other child) says my feet are black'. All of which is fine except he says it like it is such a bad thing. 'Other child' always seems to be the same child.

I know young children say exactly what they see - and this totally isn't a problem and is very natural. They are going to spot the differences and vocalise them. But I'm a bit concerned that my DS seems to view his skin colour so negatively. I say to him 'your skin is beautiful' but he often responds with 'I'm not beautiful', in a very upset manner (which may just be a reaction to the term 'beautiful' I realise)

I will obviously do everything I can at home to ensure DS does not view his (or anyone else's) skin colour negatively, but should I raise this with the nursery and should they be doing more to talk about different cultures, ethnicities etc even at this young age?

I would raise it, if only for them to make sure any mention about colours are a good and positive thing.

Yes I think I would mention it. Not in an accusatory way, but rather a heads up, iyswim? I don't think at this point I would mention the other child by name but just go in for a general discussion.

You can be a bit more specific at a later date if it continues.

There's a lot of people who'll say "no, leave it, kids are kids" but personally, the younger they learn about diversity the better. Definitely mention it to the nursery.

As a nursery manager I would want to know (although hope that my staff would have picked this up). Definitely raise it.

I agree to mention it to nursery.

My youngest daughter had a terrible habit of saying 'racist' things until she was about four - she was just observational but once she said something like 'I don't like that black lady' while reading a picture book which was obviously mortifiying (and baffling! I can assure you she had never heard such an attitude from us!).

I remember asking for advice from black friends as had no idea how to handle it.

Thanks everyone. I'll mention it to the nursery tomorrow then.